St. Bonaventura Receiving the Banner of St. Sepulchre from the Madonna 1710

Francesco Solimena painted this oil on canvas, St. Bonaventura Receiving the Banner of St. Sepulchre from the Madonna, sometime in the late 17th or early 18th century. The key to understanding the image is the banner of St. Sepulchre, which alludes to the Catholic crusades to recover Jerusalem. The Madonna, surrounded by angels, hands the flag to St. Bonaventura, a medieval theologian and cardinal. Solimena here links the institutions of the church with a military campaign that had, by this time, become a distant memory. Painted in Naples, this canvas reflects the city’s role as a religious center. It also demonstrates the power of art to reinforce ideology. We can learn more by exploring the histories of the Catholic Church, the Crusades, and the iconography of religious imagery. Understanding the painting means situating it within its historical moment.